create a content marketing strategy your customers will love, in 7 steps
DESCRIPTION
Here's how to create a content marketing strategy your customers will love, in 7 steps. This presentation from global content marketing consultant, keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author Jay Baer will help you craft a winning content marketing strategy for your brand or organization. The principles in this presentation are used by Jay Baer and his Convince and Convert consulting firm on behalf of some of the largest companies in the world. Learn how corporate objectives, audiences, audience inquiries, metrics, content execution, and even social media work together to make content marketing programs successful. You'll want to print this one out and/or share it with your team.TRANSCRIPT
Create a Content Marketing
Strategy Your Customers Will
Love, in 7 Steps
ConvinceAndConvert.com
Content Marketing Isn’t New
How to keep your plants watered on vacation, circa 1910 (from U.K. cigarette company)
How to keep your plants watered on vacation,
circa 2013 (from Lowe’s, via Vine video)
Content Creates Trust, and This Has Always Been True
And Trust is the Filter Through Which All Business Success
Must Pass
Our Emphasis on Content is What’s New
Content Marketing Institute, 2014
Nearly a third of B2B marketers are spending 25% of their budget (or
more) on content marketing
Why? !
The Old Ways of Marketing Don’t Work (like they used to)
Top-of-mind Awareness is Difficult
and Expensive
Inbound Marketing is Only Half the
Battle
Inbound marketing doesn’t create demand for your products, it simply fulfills it. Nobody goes to Google
and says “just surprise me.”
Content Marketing Works if it is Useful,
Inspirational, Motivational.
if
you have a documented strategy
Content Marketing Institute, 2014
83% of B2B marketers have a content strategy, but only 35% have it
documented
let’s fix that
also, my company - Convince & Convert - creates killer content marketing strategic plans for some of the most interesting companies in
the world. !!
ConvinceAndConvert.com
Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps
objectives 1what’s your one thing? 2
measurement 3audiences 4
audience needs 5content executions 6
content amplification 7
1Objectives
Why are you doing this at all?
Is Content Marketing going to
increase awareness?
Is Content Marketing going to
increase sales?
Is Content Marketing going to
increase loyalty?
Content objectives are all over the board. Don’t do that. Pick a rationale for content marketing
and stick with it.
Remember: the goal is NOT to be good at content.
!
The goal is to be good at business because
of content.
Because of content marketing, our customers
will _______, our prospective customers will
________, and our business will _________.
document this:
2What’s Your One Thing?
Guess what? Someone has already thought of
your great idea.
What’s special about YOU and YOUR content?
It’s usually not your products and
services
Your “ONE THING” is the soul of your
company that shines through all your
content marketing
Give yourself permission to make
the story BIGGER
How to buy a used car infographic….from a
locksmith!
People will care about our content because of
_______. Our content will inspire and motivate them because of _________.
document this:
3Measurement
Your objectives dictate your metrics
If your objective is brand awareness, you must measure
that, not something else
The 4 Categories of Content Marketing
Metrics
Remember: if you want to track
behavior, you have to do something that is trackable
!
!
!
ConvinceAndConvert.com
Don’t track everything. Track a
few things that actually matter
We will know our content is working because we will
track _______, ________, and
____________.
document this:
4Audiences
Your objectives also dictate your audiences
Use personas to model your desired
audiences
Who are they? What do they like? How
do they spend their time? What
influences them?
The audiences for our content marketing are
described by this persona (_______), this persona
(_______), and this persona (_______).
document this:
5Audience Needs
What content do your audiences WANT
from you? !
What is Youtility for them?
Youtility is marketing so useful, people would
pay for it!
!
!
YoutilityBook.com (free resources)
Multiple sources to find audience NEEDS: !
• Web analytics (popular content) • Internal search data • Search analytics (popular search terms) • Social listening • Sales/customer service • Customer interviews
Remember: don’t settle for data.
!
Get real insights.
Organize your audience needs by
persona and buying stage
Purchase!
Confirmation!
Interest!
Awareness!features
price
suitability and risk avoidance
How much content do you need?
Personas X Buying Stages X Questions per Stage
Personas (5) X Buying Stages (4) X Questions per Stage (5) = 100 pieces of content
Don’t be afraid to pursue
Cooperative Content
Instagram photo posted by dog lover, and noticed by
NestlePurina’s Beggin Strips brand
With permission, Beggin re-crops photo and posts
to it own Instagram account
Beggin then re-crops again, adds watermark and
headline, and posts to its Facebook page. Cooperative
Content at work!
Employees are also a great source of
Cooperative Content
Our buying stages are_______,
_______,_______ and ______. We have listed all the questions our personas need to move through each
stage here: _______.
document this:
6Content Executions
Remember: don’t do this step
out of order. !
You don’t have to have a blog, you have to satisfy
audience needs.
Use personas and audience research to
determine optimal content types
Content Marketing Institute, 2014
What works in content marketing
varies considerably.
Remember: don’t rely on other people’s case
studies…do your own research
Remember: if you only pay attention to averages, you’ll
always be an average marketer
Two main types of content executions:
Bricks Feathers
Bricks are: !
• Heavier • More permanent • More production value • Passed along and saved • Usually targeted closer to decision
Purchase!
Confirmation!
Interest!
Awareness!features
price
suitability and risk avoidance
Feathers are: !
• Lighter • Disposable • Less production value • Usually targeted at initial stages
Purchase!
Confirmation!
Interest!
Awareness!features
price
suitability and risk avoidance
This very detailed research
report is a brick
This blog post is a feather
Unless personas have VERY clear content format preferences, consider atomizing
content across multiple types
Remember: you can take your bricks and turn them into many
feathers, in many places
The BBC now creates 15-second news stories with Instagram video. A BBC television broadcast is a brick. This is
a feather.
Create a content planning worksheet: Date
Format/Channel Author
Description Persona(s)
Audience Need(s) Funnel Stage Call-to-Action Measurement
Remember: define WHAT you want
content consumers to do next
!
Put your content strategy on a
detailed calendar with views by week, month, quarter, year
Excel or Google docs at first, dedicated
software eventually for calendaring
For each audience need, we will create content in one or more ways, and will create
a worksheet to organize content, timelines, and
calls-to-action.
document this:
7Content Amplification
The fact that you created some
content does NOT mean anyone will see
it (or care about it)
Remember: Content is fire.
!
Social media is gasoline.
!
You must market your marketing and create a distribution plan for each piece
of content
Amplification options:Employees’ social Customers’ social Email (internal +
external) Organic search
Paid search Display ads
Organice social Paid social
Guest posts Earned meda (PR)
Offline ads
For this piece of content, we will amplify it with
______, ______, and ______.
document this:
Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps
objectives 1what’s your one thing? 2
measurement 3audiences 4
audience needs 5content executions 6
content amplification 7
Remember: your job is not to make brochures
!
Your job is to tell interesting and
informative stories.
ConvinceAndConvert.com
how can we help you?